Workshop Sessions

Workshops are smaller, breakout sessions geared towards a greater level of attendee interaction and sharing. Workshop leaders will engage with an audience of approximately 20-30 attendees and emphasizes joint exploration of ideas and concepts relevant to the industry and workplace. Workshop sessions take 2-2.5 hours and will be taking place Wednesday, February 13th. Space will be limited - sign-ups are available first come, first served in January 2019!

Workshop #1: Play and Create

In this workshop attendees will discuss and practice how games can use mechanics, group behaviors, social norms and information flow to create fun experience for different player types. First, participants play a couple of games in groups and answer some questions together. What are the core mechanics? How do they influence or subvert social dynamics in the players? How do they influence information flows? How do they highlight or obscure more dominant or supportive players? Second, attendees create a game to test answers from the first half. In small groups using simple materials attendees create cooperative game experiences tailored to specific player behaviors.

Workshop #2: Unconscious Biases & Inclusivity

Celia HodentGame User Experience Consultant

Humans do not think rationally. We believe that we have an accurate perception, an accurate memory, or that we can multitask efficiently. We believe that we are in full control of our decisions according to our values, that we have free will, that we can understand others, that we are logical beings. Sadly, this is all a lie. This workshop proposes to explore some of the most common cognitive and social unconscious biases that trick us into making bad decisions and prevent us from building a more inclusive environment, even if we strongly believe in inclusivity. It will also offer tips to avoid falling prey to these biases as much as we can, and improve inclusivity in the hiring and promotion processes.